STOCKTON, Calif. — With days to go until more than 134,000 voters in California's 11th largest city elect a new mayor, the candidates are looking to get their final messages out.
It's been 24 years since Stockton voters re-elected an incumbent mayor, a trend that will continue in the 2024 election with six new faces running to take current Mayor Kevin Lincoln's seat on the dais.
The race could be decided March 5 if any candidate receives more than 50% of the vote. If not, the top two candidates will advance to the November general election.
While many of the candidates share similar backgrounds or stances on important issues, several differences set each apart.
Who is Shakeel Ahmad?
Shakeel Ahmad describes himself as a small business owner who recently switched over to commercial real estate. He says he earned his master's degree in social work from Sacramento State.
"I got my bachelor's degree in law as well and I did my social work, practical social work, I did my medical social work, working with drug abuse, rehab and also with some psychiatric departments as well," said Ahmad. "I've been doing small business for almost 18 years, successfully, so now I'm doing commercial real estate."
For Ahmad, who says he's lived in Stockton for nearly two decades, it was seeing the city's issues that brought him to file the paperwork to run for mayor.
"I just started from the scratch and built myself up in the last two decades, so I was just looking at these issues," said Ahmad. "There was hardly any practical work and when I saw those issues, like, I've been working on it — most of them — and as a social worker I said, 'it's possible if somebody is doing it with the right intention.'"
Ahmad says his top priority as mayor would be homelessness.
Who is Jesus Andrade?
Nonprofit director Jesus Andrade is no stranger to running for office in Stockton. He won the 2016 election and went on to represent the city's sixth district on city council. His term and time on council ended with a failed bid for state senate in 2020.
"I'm a Franklin High alum, went to all public schools here in Stockton... first in my family to graduate from college, which is a big feat for us coming from an immigrant family," said Andrade. "Since college, I've dedicated myself to public service. I've done some political campaigns, some advocacy around marginalized communities, specifically on economic development, health care, access to health care, education."
He says "unfinished business" led him to start his campaign for mayor.
"I think the next 10 years will be very important for the city," said Andrade, predicting that current policies at the state level will trickle down to the city in the next few years. "For me, it matters who's going to be at the helm of the next four to eight years, to make sure that we do turn the city around. And again, for me, it's just something that is very personal."
Andrade says his top priority as mayor would be economic development.
Who is Christina Fugazi?
Educator Christina Fugazi is also hoping to return to the city council dias. She represented the city's 5th district on city council from 2015 to 2022. After being termed out, Fugazi lost a 2020 bid for state assembly.
"(I'm a) lifelong resident. My family has been in this area since the mid-1800s, so there's now seven generations. I'm the fifth generation," said Fugazi. "Right now I am an assistant principal, but I've spent nearly 30 years being with high school students — Stockton students in particular."
She says people have asked her to run for mayor in the past, but decided the 2024 election was the right time after finding out the incumbent wouldn't be running for re-election.
"I feel like I have the political skill. I have the knowledge. I know the history. I definitely have kept up with all of the issues, all of the policies," said Fugazi. "I think that 'of the people, for the people by the people' has been my motto along with 'show up, stand up, speak up,' so why not me?"
Fugazi says her top priority as mayor would be public safety.
Who is Jessica Velez?
The 2024 election will mark the first time former paralegal and current nonprofit director Jessica Velez campaigns for public office. Having previously served on Stockton's homelessness committee, Velez says most of her career experience so far has been in the private and nonprofit sectors.
"I am a mother, a grandmother, been a paralegal for about 25 years. I've also managed property here in Stockton and most recently, I started a nonprofit in 2021 called Red Rabbit Advocacy and that focuses on homeless solutions," said Velez. "(I) never planned to be in politics, but felt motivated to do so based off the past few years experiencing systemic roadblocks in government."
She says working directly with the homeless gave her ideas on how to solve some issues facing the city and served as the spark for her mayoral bid.
"I also was getting frustrated with coming to city council, coming to other political leaders, and asking for us to start moving forward with (a) supportive transitional village for our homeless community, just not feeling heard," said Velez. "Just having the understanding after living in Stockton since 1982. I've been here, the streets need to be healed."
Velez says her top priority as mayor would be homelessness.
Who is Dan Wright?
Educator and current councilman Dan Wright is hoping to stay on the city council dais after nearly 10 years as a council member. In 2015, Wright was appointed to fill a vacancy representing the city's 2nd district on city council. He ran for election in 2016 and re-election in 2020; winning both times.
"I'm an educator — a lifelong educator. (I) started teaching in 1983 at the American School in Managua, Nicaragua... made my way through Texas, LA, wound up in Stockton in 93 to do school administration," said Wright. "The rest of my career here was at the central office at the director, assistant superintendent and acting superintendent level."
He says he was thinking about retiring after reaching his term limit this year, but decided to launch his campaign after the current mayor announced he would not run for re-election.
"Stockton is very fickle about its mayors. They want action and they want it discernible within the first couple of years because otherwise, you're on a downhill slide," said Wright. "I think I should be the next mayor of Stockton. I think I've got the policy experience that others, to me, haven't shown."
Wright says his top priority as mayor would be corruption and incompetence in local government.
Who is Tom Patti?
This year will mark the third consecutive election where businessman and County Supervisor Tom Patti's name will appear on ballots. Patti has served as a representative of San Joaquin County's 3rd district on the county's Board of Supervisors for two terms, starting in 2017.
In 2022, he lost a bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
"I'm a county supervisor, a local business owner and honestly, more importantly, a dad. I'm proud to have been a baseball coach. I've participated in sports in my history as well as many challenges and ventures that have brought me around this great country of ours," said Patti. "But Stockton is home. It's where I grew up, it's where I went to high school, it's where I've chosen to build a business and raise my family."
He says a conversation with fighter and friend Mike Tyson sparked his idea to run for mayor.
"I brought him town, we did a lot of charity work and when he's leaving town, he says, 'You business people complain too much. You need to run for office, Tommy,'" said Patti. "I'm proud to have taken on this challenge of like, what can we do that can be different, better or more to help create jobs, to help stimulate our economy and improve our community."
Patti says his top priority as mayor would be public safety through addressing homelessness.
Where do the candidates stand on crime?
The Stockton Police Department's most recent crime data shows an increase of 812 crimes reported from 2021 to 2022.
To reduce crime, Ahmad proposes establishing teams of workers or volunteers to monitor "red-tagged areas" and encouraging residents in those areas to communicate with the teams. He also advocates for more resources for police officers.
"The response should be fast from our side, also from the police department," said Ahmad. "On the other side...when we work on our youths and all that, they will be out of gangs, they will be in schools, they will be getting technical education."
Andrade believes he could lessen crime in part by bolstering police recruitment to address the Stockton Police Department's officer staffing shortage. He points to plans that were in place when he was a city council member.
"(Officer staffing) is not the only solution. The other thing that we did during that time is we got a well-run Office of Violence Prevention. We were following the Marshall Plan," said Andrade. "We also had other alternative programs that were out there to help... young men and others who are victims and perpetrators of crime."
Fugazi also believes more officers can help lower crime. She says she would call for more oversight and tracking of police staffing funds to make sure more officers are recruited.
"We don't have those officers, which is why the chief said we were going to code blue and I felt that that was kind of like a free pass for people doing low-level crimes to get away with it," said Fugazi. "Here's the bottom line for me: Our officers have a tough job, but we need to enforce the law, period, end of sentence."
Velez says she would aim to bring collaboration and an open mind to hearing solutions on how to decrease crime.
"We can't continue to function in cliques, you know, 'I don't like your idea so I'm going to be bullheaded,' and just not communicating," said Velez. "Listening to our police officers that are boots on the ground — they have great ideas and they have great suggestions, and I believe that they should be heard as well in resolving these issues."
Wright believes changes at the state level and more police staffing can alleviate crime locally.
"Mayor of Stockton is part of the Big City Mayor's Coalition and it's access to the governor that only 13 mayors have and I promise you, I would use that to help drive policy at the state of California level," said Wright. "Let's create some new policies that address repeat offenders, which right now, you know, they keep getting released."
Patti says his proposal to lower crime is centered around job training programs and developing a local workforce.
"If we can partner with the private industry and create a job training program that's a gateway to local jobs, I am certain we'll lessen the crime. You start to lessen your graffiti, you start to lessen some of the local disparities and hardships that many people will experience until they have an opportunity to earn a paycheck," he said.
How would the candidates address homelessness?
On any given night in Stockton, nearly 893 people are without shelter.
Similar to his proposal to reduce crime, Ahmad says he would create a task force to send teams of volunteer or paid social workers to areas where the homeless live and encourage them to go to shelters or rehab.
"The social workers, they can work on them. Trust me, they can fix their problems," said Ahmad. "If you need medicine or if you need food or clothing or anything, we provide them in the shelter and everything. And then we'll just give them some kind of education, where to bring them on track."
Andrade's approach to reducing homelessness rests on opening more temporary shelter beds and offering more mental health services.
"We have to be creative and look at all options because we need to be able to help our law enforcement and first responders to be able to move folks from the street over to temporary shelter," said Andrade. "The next thing is permanent housing."
Fugazi also supports opening more shelter beds and offering housing.
"(Shelter beds) has to be one of the things that we need to fast track in order to get people off the street. The other thing is we need more housing," said Fugazi. "We need to make sure that the people that we have, if they're from here, making sure that maybe they get reunited with their family."
Velez advocates for more transparency when it comes to results of the homeless programs the city is currently funding.
"I definitely want to see a transitional village started here. It is low-cost and it allows people to stand on their own feet, as opposed to continuing the handouts, the shelter model," said Velez. "There's plenty of people out there that just need some basic stability and then, we can triage them out from that point to the resources that they need unique to their situation."
While Wright would like to see more housing, he is hoping to speed up the process of opening more shelter beds that come with resources for the homeless.
"The shelter beds are important because of the complexities of policing the homelessness issue. Right now you cannot criminalize camping in public unless you have enough shelter beds to meet your needs," said Wright. "Housing first is a goal, but if housing first isn't working, then by all means, let's use every option we have. But shelters are important."
Patti is a staunch critic of a housing-first approach and says that his approach to homelessness would involve more shelters with support services.
"The big pivot has to be away from the 'let's get the government money for the housing first solution,'" said Patti. "Let's reclaim our streets. Let's have safe sanctuaries for people to go to so they're regionally located in all of our major cities, we're not transplanting anybody. Let's get them into support services."
Ballots in San Joaquin County have already been mailed out. Ballots must be postmarked on or before March 5 and delivered to the Elections Office within seven days.
San Joaquin County has several ballot drop boxes located across the county. For more details on how to vote in person on Election Day or by mail, check the San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters' website HERE.
Polls close at 8 p.m. March 5. The San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters plans to release election results every two hours starting at 8 p.m. Election Day.
Watch more from ABC10: San Joaquin County elections officials prepare for March primary
